Statement by Three Members of the Central Committee

Published:Published , with some changes, in the pamphletThe Fight for a Congress, by N. Shakhov, Geneva, 1904.

      Published according to the manuscript.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      publisher??,pubdate??,

      Moscow,Volume 7,

      pages430-431.Translated:Fineberg AbrahamTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

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Thethree Central Committee members Glebov,

	Zverev,[2]and Lenin, having discussed the differences within the
      Central Committee, have arrived at the following conclusions,
      which shall
      be communicated to all members of the Central
      Committee:

1)The differences arose over the question of summoning a
      congress. After Lenin and Vasilyev had declared in the Party
      Council in favour of a congress, the majority of the Central
      Committee (by five votes to four,Travinsky’svote having
      been transferred to ComradeGlebov) declared against a
      congress.LeninandVasilyevthereupon announced
      their provisional resignation from the Council. This conflict has
      now been

      adjusted[1]by havingGlebovandLeninserve as the Central Committee’s representatives on the Council.

2)Comrade Glebov has informed Comrade Lenin that he, Glebov, will
      resign from the Central Committee unless Lenin gives up agitating
      (outside the Central Committee) for a congress and works against a
      congress. Lenin, considering such an attitude to the question
      wrong and impermissible in principle, states that he will canvass
      the opinion of each of the Central Committee members and will then
      give his reply, which can only be whether he, Lenin, is resigning
      from the Central Committee or not. (What applies to Lenin likewise
      applies, from ComradeGlebov’sstandpoint, to all Central
      Committee members sharing Lenin’s view.)

3)To give an accurate picture of the differences within the Central
      Committee at the present time, it should bestated that ComradeValentinand ComradeNikitich,[3]in the declaration written by them in
      March and approved by
      ComradeGlebov, stated
(1) that they were emphatically
      opposed to co-optation at the demand of the minority;
(2) that they
      shared the views on organisation set out in the pamphletWhat Is
	To Be Done?and
(3) that they, or at least two of them, did not
      approve of the opportunist position of certain Party writers. As
      regards a congress, Comrade Glebov is convinced
(1) that the
      difference on this question is causing a duality of policy in the
      Central Committee, and
(2) that a congress may lead to a split. It is
      because he does not wish to assume responsibility for this that he
      declares himself bound to resign from the Central Committee. Lenin, on
      the other hand, considers that the Central Committee, being a body
      accountable to the congress, must be neutral in the matter of the
      congress and allow all its members freedom of agitation. As to a
      split, it is unlikely, for the majority are prepared in principle to
      make terms at the congress, even to the point of neutralisingIskra.

4)Pending settlement of this conflict all official steps and
      statements by ComradeGlebovand Comrade Lenin on behalf
      of the Central Committee shall only be undertaken by their common
      consent and over their joint signatures.

CentralCommittee membersGlebovZverevLenin

Geneva, May 26, 1904

[1]Concerning this see the
      letter by Lenin appended hereto, which has been approved by
      ComradeGlebov.(Pp. 426-29 of this volume.—Ed.)
      —Lenin

[2]Zverev—pseudonym of the Bolshevik Maria Essen, member of
      the Central Committee.

[3]Nikitich—pseudonym of L. B. Krasin.